Notebook Video, Display and Touch

Hello,

I am having trouble playing DVD's on my HP Pavillion g7-2300 notebook.   I've had this laptop for a long time and I was able to play DVDs up until a few days ago, but today when I inserted a disc I got this message:

When I click on "learn more" it brings me to a webpage where there are newer versions of cyberlink media software available for purchse.  As you can see in the image there is an ad for one of the versions.

There was one update available for the Cyberlink PowerDVD software and I installed it.  This did not fix the issue and I am still geting the same message as above.   I also tried to play different DVDs.

I have PowerDVD OEM version 10.0.8.5723 and am using Windows 8.1.  I've had Windows 8.1 for many months and as I mentioned I was able to play DVD's before with this windows version. 

As far I as I can tell it isn't a trial version.  It's asking me to buy an upgrade not a full version so this is what leads me to believe it's not a trial version.

Why the sudden change? 

Unfortunately the Windows Media Player software on my laptop doesn't play DVDs.   I've searched for Quicktime software, but there doesn't seem to be any available for Windows 8 or 8.1.  

I find it odd because in all the decades that I've used and had computers this is the first time I'm being told I have to buy software to be able to use the hardware that came with my computer.